Soon IUPUI will be under new leadership. Chancellor Charles R. Bantz will pass the baton to Chancellor Nasser Paydar in mid-August.

As a communications specialist, I had the honor of being backstage at the inauguration of Chancellor Bantz and his wife, IUPUI First Lady Sandra Petronio. It would be my baptism into the world of the pomp and circumstance that comes along with such Indiana University occasions.

My memories of that event focus on the dynamics of interactions among the extended Bantz family as they proudly celebrated the accomplishment of one of their own, while recognizing the tremendous responsibility inherent in the mantle Bantz was accepting.

Her first book took 30 years, but Katrina Patterson already has a second book in mind.

Patterson is the Bachelor of Social Work student services secretary and recorder in the Indiana University School of Social Work administrative offices at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, where she has worked for more than 20 years.

Her first book, “Ralph’s Journey to Babyland: A place for the night,” was published this year and is available on Amazon. The book tells the story of Ralph, a 10-year-old boy who is playing with his dog Sonic and loses track of time. Before he knows it, Ralph is lost and then walks through a cloud. What happens next is Ralph’s amazing discovery of a world of babies and the casual, free, candy-filled lives they live.

She got the idea for the book in 1985, while she was in high school. Patterson had completed an English assignment by writing a children’s book. She kept it, knowing that one day she wanted to do something more with it.

A 16-foot highchair and a trail of brown ants are my favorite campus dust busters.

Perhaps your daily routine could stand a little dusting off. Let me prescribe a walking tour of the public sculptures on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus.

First stop should be that stone pyramid with a seasonal water flow. Wood Fountain — south of University Library along New York Street — is first and foremost a work of art.

The pyramid designers, Singh Associates, added the water function so it could also serve as a fountain. Singh is also the artist behind the geyser-like McKinney Fountain on the IU Bloomington campus.

Wood Fountain, completed in 1995, is one of 29 listed public sculptures on the IUPUI campus; others include the Chihuly DNA Tower at the IU School of Medicine and Punctuation Spire in the Campus Center. Some pieces are on loan, but many are owned by IU.

Need another reason to get off that couch and be physically active? You may be more likely to develop chronic pain if you don’t.

An Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis researcher is studying the relationship between physical activity/fitness and the prevention or reduction of chronic pain among adults as they age. Such research could have a wide impact, given that as many as 100 million adults in the U.S. suffer from chronic pain.

Kelly Naugle, an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology in the IU School of Physical Education and Tourism Management, is studying systems in the body that reduce pain or amplify it.

I got that “why didn’t I think of that?” feeling when I first browsed Austin Radcliffe’s Webby Award-winning website.

Radcliffe, a 2012 Herron School of Art and Design graduate, creates and curates images of everyday stuff for the website “Things Organized Neatly.”

My first thought — or assumption — was that the genius images must be rooted in what I called AOCD — artistic obsessive compulsive disorder — for lack of any known, real terminology.

More than one image reminded me of how a relative tackled dishwashing.

First, all the dirty glasses, spoons, forks, knives, plates, bowls, pots and pans were laid out in military parade formation across the kitchen countertops. Then they were marched one group at a time into the sink for washing.

Totally inefficient. Certainly not a thing of beauty to be photographed and shared.

Fans of the HBO TV series “Game of Thrones” (and the books on which the series is based) know you can’t take a stroll through Westeros without tripping over a knight, a sellsword or a black-cloaked Ranger of the Night’s Watch. But when it comes to protection from harm, what many citizens of the fictional Seven Kingdoms really need these days is an epidemiologist.

It seems the mysterious and deadly greyscale, an infectious disease that leaves its victims’ flesh stiff and dead, has returned. The skin of those afflicted becomes cracked and turns an ominous mottled black and grey color before becoming stone-like to the touch. And that means that White Walkers, dragons and would-be kings with itchy sword fingers aren’t the only things citizens need to fear.

What is greyscale? How is it spread? What are the control measures? And most importantly — especially for a certain disgraced former advisor to the Mother of Dragons — is there a cure? These are all questions that have taken on new urgency in the current season.

It’s been a long time coming, but on Saturday, the 1955 Crispus Attucks High School state championship boys basketball team will finally get its public due.

For the first time in the 500 Festival Parade’s 58-year history, it will make a planned stop on Monument Circle. Twenty-first-century technology will allow the world to witness the sights and sounds as members of the Attucks team get the on-the-Circle celebration they were denied following their historic 1955 win.

Traditionally the Indiana champs would parade through downtown Indianapolis on a city fire truck and then party on the Circle. But Jim Crow and his relatives — Racism and Ignorance — had other plans for the Attucks team.

After one trip around the monument, a police escort ushered the victory parade into a black neighborhood park for their party.

Now, 60 years later, the team has been designated the 2015 IPL 500 Festival Parade grand marshals.

It is much too late to assuage any disappointment, sadness or even anger that the Attucks teens had to swallow as they were denied the traditional honor awarded state champs. But perhaps the fact that today’s 24-hour Internet news cycle, smartphones and YouTube will give people around the nation front-row seats to this weekend’s celebration might, for those boys long since turned men, cast aside any lingering dregs of that bitter drink.

More than miles separate the U.S. and Ecuador when it comes to health conditions in the two countries. Still, Karen Klutzke says she will draw on her experiences in that South American country when she begins her career as a physician assistant later this year.

Klutzke will be among the first students to graduate in August from the Master of Physician Assistant Studies program in the Indiana University School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Students spend 15 months of the 27-month-long academic program in the classroom and the remainder in clinical rotations, some of which can be chosen as electives. For an elective, Klutzke joined an international service trip March 6 to 14 that was organized by Timmy Global Health, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that expands access to health care and empowers students and volunteers to tackle today’s most pressing global health challenges.